Kanaya Maryam
"Everyone Has An Important Job To Do" —Kanaya Kanaya Maryam is a character from the webcomic/flash animation story Homestuck. She is one of the twelve "trolls" who contact the four main characters from another universe, first appearing as antagonists then later as allies facing similar dangers. Kanaya's player is the same as Aribeth. This character was chosen as her third account. Background Kanaya is a Troll from the planet Alternia, a world in a universe parallel to that of Earth. She, like her eleven compatriots, was not hatched in the breeding caverns of Alternia like normal for her species but rather cloned via ectobiology in the Medium, the world of the apocalypse game known as SBURB, or SGRUB in the Troll universe. Via time travel, she and her fellow clones, as well as their twelve Ancestors, were sent back to live and grow the first six solar sweeps - approximately thirteen years - of their lifetimes among Alternia's culture. She was taken by her Lusus Naturae - a monstrous creature that served as a guardian and custodian, in Kanaya's case a Virgin Mother Grub - and raised in a desert oasis; Kanaya grew up exploring ruins near her hive and battling the undead that rose during Alternia's brutally-hot day hours. As she was destined to be a Hero of Space in the future game session, Kanaya's dream-self was awakened early, in her case by an encounter with Alternia's godlike First Guardian, Doc Scratch; as a result she possessed a minor form of precognition by being able to see future events in the clouds of her dreams. Upon reaching six sweeps, Kanaya and her companions began playing SGRUB, compiled from code found in ruins by Kanaya and Aradia Megido, one of the other trolls, by the hacker Sollux Captor. Simultaneous with the beginning of the game, paradox space brought an end to Alternia, destroying the planet with meteor bombardment from The Reckoning, the final phase of the war within the Medium, and eliminating the populace of the planet with the Vast Glub of Gl'bgolyb, the eldritch lusus of the troll princess Feferi Peixes. The twelve destined Heroes managed to escape the Glub by entering the game Medium, thereby passing into another universe and escaping the range of the horrorterror's deadly voice. Within the game the Trolls managed to overcome their oppositions and complete their objective: the creation of a new universe. However, upon attempting to enter the reality they had made they were blocked and attacked by an invader from their creation's future: Jack Noir, a prominent NPC present in every instance of SBURB, empowered by stealing the ring of the Black Queen and gaining the prototypes stored within, most dangerously the First Guardian of Earth, Becquerel. Jack immediately went on a destructive rampage within the Trolls' session, obliterating planet after planet, forcing them to flee into the meteors in the Veil on the session's edge to escape his notice. There, they made contact with humans - dwellers in the reality they had made, now far in its future and playing the same deadly game. Karkat Vantas, the Trolls' self-appointed leader, believed the humans had set Noir on them through incompetence or malice and intended to assault them in whatever way he could; however, further investigations proved otherwise and that the humans, while possibly reckless, were not intending harm or ill-will on the Alternians and Noir's arrival had not been their doing. Kanaya volunteered to aid in speaking with them and was assigned to dealing with Rose Lalonde, and the two soon became close friends. She also interacted with fellow Space player Jade Harley, and aided her in the process of breeding the Genesis Frog Bilious Slick, the living embodiment of each new universe. Quite some time later, Kanaya was killed by one of her companions, the sea-dweller Eridan Ampora, during a skirmish between him and several others of their number. Karkat attempted to recessitate her, but due to Noir's destruction of the dream-world of Prospit and the dream-selves of the trolls therein, the normal method of revival from death with a kiss failed. However, shortly after his departure something else did bring Kanaya back to life, though as an undead "rainbow drinker" - the Alternian version of a vampire. She immediately departed for the depths of the meteor to take revenge on Eridan, breaking up a fight between him and two others in the process. Shortly after this Kanaya herself was slain, when Jack Noir followed Vriska Serket's trail back to the meteor and eliminated all the other survivors before meeting the Thief of Light herself for a duel. This event did not happen in the primary timeline of Homestuck due to the intervention of Terezi Pyrope killing Vriska before she could depart; however, the Kanaya who entered the Multiverse was the one from this doomed beta timepath. Involvement Kanaya's Space powers played havoc with her arrival in the Multiverse. As the Rifts attempted to draw her in, her insticts and innate capabilities flailed frantically for a path of escape, causing her to manifest randomly in various areas across the Multiverse only to be whisked elsewhere. She eventually was deposited outside the Wing of Daybreak, left in the rubble of the destruction caused by the recent Vehicon attack. Some time later, Kanaya recovered from her entry trauma and began traveling, choosing the Space Colony ARK as her first destination. There she was given a short description of the colony's purpose and the Altruistic Valorians who owned it. She was then introduced to Tails, the faction's leader. Personality Under most circumstances, Kanaya is calm, collected, and logical. She is a natural mediator, and is regularly called upon to break up or arbitrate rivalries and makes a habit of getting close to violent, dangerous Trolls such as Vriska, Eridan, and Karkat, doing what she can to calm their harmful tendencies. Only with Karkat has this been relatively successful - Eridan frustrated her so much she withdrew from him, and her moiraillegiance with Vriska was complicated by Kanaya's romantic feelings toward her and Vriska's constant moodswings and erratic personality. As of her death and undead resurrection, Kanaya appears to have become more forward and less passive than she was in life. Otherwise her personality appears to have been changed little. However, the effects of her new status and the blood thirst that came with it are unexplored due to Kanaya's short time existing under their sway, and in the future they may cause alterations to her personality that have yet to be seen. Powers and Capabilities Kanaya is a bit of an oddity among the twelve Trolls mainly featured in Homestuck. Whereas most of the others - minus only Eridan with his laser rifle and Vriska with her enchanted dice - use simple medieval weapons or special psionic powers, Kanaya is armed with a small, hand-held chainsaw. This weapon has the unique feature of being able to fold in on itself and be carried around in the form of a tube of lipstick, half green and half black, which can and regularly is actually used as lipstick, or for writing or drawing on things. In SGRUB, she was able to create various different kinds of chainsaws with the game's built-in alchemy system; however she no longer possesses these since her arrival in the Multiverse. As a jade-blooded Troll, Kanaya is naturally resistant to the brutal Alternian sun that forces most other Trolls into a nocturnal lifestyle. As a rainbow drinker, the Troll version of vampirism, many of the common vampiric strengths and weaknesses are reversed: rainbow drinkers come out during the day rather than being burned by sunlight, and their skin shines brightly in the dark. In SGRUB, Kanaya was also granted the role of the Sylph of Space, and the powers associated with it; its abilities seem to be oriented around mass and location. Quotes Trivia *Kanaya, like the other Homestuck trolls, is affiliated with one of the symbols of the western Zodiac, in her case Virgo (♍). Her name is derived from Kanya the Indian translation of Virgo, and Maryam the Arabic translation of the Biblical Mary. *As this version of Kanaya is an "alternate timeline" or "beta" version of the character (compared to the alpha versions the comic focuses on), she will be unaware of some of the events that happened in the story after her entrance into the Multiverse, despite the alpha Kanaya being present for them. *Kanaya's jade-green blood is a genetic rarity that gives her a special place in the trolls' hemospectrum or blood-based caste system; she was given a special consort (the Mother Grub) and has a natural resistance to sunlight which is extremely harmful to most trolls. Even prior to her undead metamorphosis she spent much of the daylight hours awake and was said to enjoy the sunlight. *Kanaya is the first and currently the only Homestuck character present on CRRP. External Links *Land of Rays and Frogs (Storage Topic) Category:Player Characters Category:Dropped Characters